


Torches & Aged Wine

by Moon6Shadow



Series: Good Omens Series [15]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Aziraphale-centric (Good Omens), Aziraphale/&Crowley (Good Omens), Blanket Permission Statement Available, Don't copy to another site, Gen, Guardians - Freeform, Hollowgast l Hollows (Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children), Library of Alexandria, Long Live Feedback (LLF) Comment Project Friendly, POV Crowley (Good Omens), References to Hollowgast l Hollows's Eyeball Diet (Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children), Reposting is only allowed for historic preservation with credit; not for personal or financial gain., What it means to be a Guardian, Wights! Crowley (Good Omens), Ymbrynes! Aziraphale (Good Omens), inspired by prompt, musings, what it means to be immortal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:08:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23356735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moon6Shadow/pseuds/Moon6Shadow
Summary: In which Aziraphale is a ymbryne and Crowley was a hollow, now a wight, and this does and doesn't change things aka Aziraphale is still peckish and Crowley drinks wine and muses.Warning: Originally romantic prompt given a Good Omens spin. Where Aziraphale is trying to convince Crowley to grab a bite to eat with him.
Relationships: Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: Good Omens Series [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1494473
Kudos: 5





	Torches & Aged Wine

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Writing Prompt: Dialogue](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/574336) by Writing Challenges & Prompts. 



Inspiration, Writing Challenges & Prompts:

_“[—-], you… You don’t want to go out with me? I thought you liked me?”_  
  
_“No! Yes! I mean, I do want to go out with you! I really, really do! More than–more than anything! But I can’t got to dinner with you–human food is–it makes me sick.”_  
  
_“What… what do you eat then?”_  
  
_“I, um, well I… I eat eyes, human eyes…”_

* * *

"Ah…." Aziraphale blinks. Right then. "Drink?"

"Love to." Crowley says looking both dumbfounded and utterly limp with relief. Aziraphale casually hooks his arm in his to ensure he stays upright as he steers them towards one his favourite drinking places, not the place he’d initially had in mind but well this is closer and he doesn’t think Crowley should be driving, or even walking, very far right now.

Crowley still isn’t sure if he’s dreaming or not. _Idiot_ , as if Aziraphale didn’t already _know_ what he was, he’d at least given him the custody of treating him kindly so far and then Crowley just had to blurt out that he could _still_ only eat human eyeballs despite gaining humanoid form, as if _gaining_ humanoid form wasn’t the final nail in the coffin in the first place considering what it said about him. Aziraphale’s kindness and desire to have lunch with him could only extend so far surely?

But _nope_ , it seems they were doing this, actually doing this, he realised as he found himself sitting at a table with absolutely no idea how he got there. Aziraphale chatting away about something or other as he waves a fork in the air, looking a combination of utterly proper and the most improper Crowley had ever seen him, if you didn’t count the times Crowley had seen him with fury in his eyes as he protected his charges.

It baffled Crowley that Aziraphale was never given charges of his own, not directly, not since the first time, but instead given the task of finding peculiars and bringing them somewhere safe, somewhere for _other_ ymbrynes to protect and watch over them. That he is no longer considered worthy to watch over peculiars when he so obviously is.

Then again there is also the _eyes_ , eyes that had seen Crowley even before he gained humanoid form, even when the other ymbrynes didn’t. The other ymbrynes that hid in their time loops waiting, forever waiting, for the invisible monsters to pass them by, as if the time loops made them _safe_. While throwing Aziraphale to the wolves to live out time without even the illusion of protection from a timeloop, Aziraphale’s eyes the only thing that didn’t make it a suicide mission as he shepherded more and more peculiars under his wing.

Only ever temporarily you understand, but _his_ all the same.

An immoral sent to stand the test of time and march grimly forwards while his brethren twisted time between their fingers so their worlds forever remained the same.

Not that Aziraphale _couldn't_ , Crowley _knows_ Aziraphale could, if he wanted to, has seen him twist time in intricate patterns with extraordinary skill, an absent flick of a wrist reversing a cup of spilled tea that is seen as both frivolous and _dangerous_ by Aziraphale's 'brethren' because 'What if someone _sees? (_ What if the _monsters_ hear about it? What if they come looking?)' instead of the extraordinary fine tuned skill it really is. Aziraphale could twist time or even protect his bookshop in a heart beat if he wanted to.

But he doesn’t.

Aziraphale _fusses_ over his charges, his peculiars and books both, but his books he can keep with him and seeks to ensure can endure the test of time as long as possible. Aziraphale, who has too often watched the things he cared about turn to dust. Been the only thing between a fallen guardian and their charges turning to dust as the clock ticks down until the time loop cracks and time rushes in.

 _Aziraphale who has personally fought more hollows than most ymbrynes will ever see and uses time as a carefully crafted weapon_ and _shield in battle._

Aziraphale wouldn’t do that to his books, not when he can make them survive without him, else without him a single day might spell their doom.

It makes him more mobile than other ymbryne Crowley knows, more useful as an agent, but the knowledge is bittersweet when he remembers the many times during the early days when he came across Aziraphale standing motionless before one decrepit building or other, the dust that is all that is left of his precious books on his hands, until Crowley gently drew him away.

_One person's charges saved at the cost of anothers._

They say the Library of Alexandria was burnt in a fire, Crowley knows better. Knows the extremely complicated time loops Aziraphale crafted every day so the library was always in two places, present and future, at once, so that even if he couldn't _stay_ in one time he could still keep pieces of it.

_Remembers Aziraphale’s panic and despair when orders drew him away only to realise he’d been gone too long. How he still refused to leave his new charges to die. How he almost hadn't been able to bear going back, not even for a moment, not even to cover up what had happened so he didn't get in trouble from his higher ups, until Crowley had offered to walk beside him had helped him lift a flaming torch in trembling hands and turn back the clock on the Library of Alexandria one. more. time. before they watched it all turn to dust and the flames hide the evidence._

Now Aziraphale’s books are protected and well cared for so that they might survive without him, how he creates duplicates for regular handling when others get too thread bare and old. _Now_ Crowley listens to Aziraphale talk about how if Crowley doesn’t like the drinks here, there is always some bottles he could try back at Aziraphale’s shop. As if it’s common for a _ymbryne_ to have _anything_ _aged_ in their homes. Yet Crowley knows they would be, and it wouldn’t be because of a cleverly, or not so cleverly, woven time loop to exclude them like some ymbrynes have, and the knowledge is bittersweet on his tongue.

Aziraphale who smiles and laughs and might be called old fashioned if you forget he's been around since practically The Beginning and yet walks around looking like an English Gentleman in a suit and bow tie instead of long flowing robes. Aziraphale who walks through time with him, with him and his charges, because they are _all_ his charges not just the ones protected in time loops, and watches his charges age/grow old with quiet pride in his eyes. 

Aziraphale who in the times to come will face down the end of the world with him and for his charges, will drink aged wine with him, and smile and laugh at the years still to come.

**Author's Note:**

> Reads prompt: Immediately gets hit over the head with the image of Hollows from Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Starting to write and then belatedly realising how well Crowley fits as a Hollow who’s regarded human form thanks to his sunglasses and realising how well Aziraphale being a Ymbryne fits was just the nail in the coffin.
> 
> Originally the idea was Crowley helped Aziraphale a time or two via alerting him that his children were in danger and then I slowly ended up fusing the two worlds together with a more Good Omens slant instead as I just musing on what does it actually _mean_ for Aziraphale _not_ to have children under his protection? 
> 
> Granted I can also totally imagine a flip side to this where The bookshop or somewhere else is full of echos of childish laughter. Maybe it even is in this story too, the charges Aziraphale didn't get to keep for some reason or other, or the charges he _did_ keep and protect, the ones who needed him who weren't always Peculiars or perhaps were peculiars but wanted to stay and age rather than go and hide for eternity, and Aziraphale allowed them that and didn't breath a word. 
> 
> Actually maybe that was what happened with Adam and Eve that first time. Crowley told them about the outside world where things aged and died but also allowed new things to happen and Aziraphale let them go rather than keep them hidden and 'safe' from the world around them.
> 
> -  
> Thank you everyone for reading!! <3
> 
> #Fandom for Fun, so not looking for critics but pretty much all polite feedback including Whisper and Murmur comments are totally welcome. If you've left feedback in the form of kudos, bookmarks and/or comments I likely won't see feedback immediately, but I will see it eventually so thank you!! 
> 
> Open series to see my detailed [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject) statement or see [Poetry and Short Stories](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1007304) series notes for my Blanket Permission Statement but basically, as long as you credit, yes you can.


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